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ghost-town-story · 2 years

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WTW March Madness: Day 4

Challenge 1: Talk about the main conflict in your wip

Astral: Maddox, the bastard lol.

LBW: Honestly, it’s kinda multiple crises rolled into one lol. There’s the whole “oh fuck somebody’s assassinating royalty” bit, and then there’s Ronan’s Refusal of the Call and the associated “I have amnesia pls stop assuming I know shit/you”

Labyrinth: The trio fighting this living death maze in order to rescue Hal’s sister.

Challenge 2: Plan the climax

The climax? Oh, you mean when [Redacted] threatens Ronan’s family, tries to kill him, and ends up yeeting the poor boy off a cliff and into the ocean? Cool cool.

(Have I mentioned Ronan deserves better? Because gotdamn Ronan deserves better lmao)

Astral should technically have three, since it is intended on being a trilogy. The big one is the final showdown between Maddox, Melody, and Aiden, while the first one would be the Battle for the Pass that still needs to be renamed. Honestly? No clue if the second book even has a point that could be called the climax........ which is probably an issue I should look into lol

Labyrinth....... One option is essentially a fight against a lava demon. But that’s all I got for now lol

Challenge 3: Brainstorm at least 2 major plot points in your wip

Numero 1

*rolls up sleeves* Alright Weslyn, time to poke at you for the first time since 2015 (and no, this unfortunately is not an exaggeration.......)

So, previously, Agea and Weslyn were two separate, back-to-back arcs. But, now that I think about it, it would work really nice if they got blended together.

Aiden gets capture in Agea. Rather than hold him there until Maddox/Danielle can take care of him, whoever is in charge decides “nah, we can transport him across basically the entire country. What could go wrong?”

..... Sir. I call him my little thief boy for a reason lol.

So, when my little thief boy finds himself in handcuffs again, he waits till he has the best chance of escape, picks his way out of said cuffs (again), and runs off into the night, ending up in a little town called Weslyn. Nothing bad’s gonna happen here :))))))

Ensuing shenanigans of Rose and Co going to jailbreak Aiden only to find out he’s not there, Aiden being hunted so he can’t feasibly leave Weslyn, and other “oh fuck I lost my friend(s) and I need him/them” moments.

Also Arya, because I love her. *looks at the price of my love, pats her on the head* sorry kiddo.

Number 2

This is just one scene. Therefore, bullet points so I curb the rambling and don’t actually try to write it right now

Ilasea time babey

(also hasn’t been touched since ~2015. Moving on)

In the castle. By this point, it’s Melody, Aiden........ Jared’s out by now, idk where Will would be, but Finn’s probably still with them. Loyal boyo.

Why hello there Jake

Melody immediately goes into full apology/fussing older sister mode, which leads to her nearly getting stabbed. The only reason why she doesn’t is because of Finn.

Finn

He can tell

Jake has just enough free will left to beg his sister, tells her to leave, now, before he does something he’ll regret.

Melody refuses. She left him behind once, she won’t do it again.

Jake doesn’t have a choice

But Melody won’t fight her brother. Nor will she leave him.

As Jake tries to attack again, his sword is knocked aside.

Not by Melody, who won’t raise her blade against him even to defend herself.

Not by Finn, still behind her to drag her out of harm’s way.

Not by Aiden, out of reach.

“Jacob Ryder Tiberius, in Maddox’s name, I order you to stop.”

For a moment, nobody moves.

Then Danielle looks over her shoulder at the three of them. “What are you waiting for? Get going.”

“Release him.”

“I don’t have that power. You know how to free him. Get. Going.”

Some more arguing back n forth. This is why I bullet point lol

“I swear upon my magic that he will remain unharmed. Now go!”

And finally Melody relents and leaves Jake behind to go face Maddox.

.... This one is gonna hurt to write properly lol

#writing #worldbuilding #the astral chronicles #lost beneath the waves #labyrinth of the dragon #wtwevent #wtwcommunity #writeblr things

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clockworkopera · 6 years

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Story Arc of LoS and TDA...

After my post on analyzing books, I got this question from @anna-g-x: Hi, you talk a lot in posts about story arcs and climaxes and I was wondering if you could do a post explaining the events e.g. Inciting incident followed by ..etc that should happen in a good book, thank you

The story arcs that I refer to are part the fundamental elements of plot in a 3 Act Structure. There are lots of discussions about the merits of plot driven vs. character driven stories. In my opinion they go hand in hand, and a good story needs both. You can have the best character, but if nothing happens there’s no story, and if there isn’t a character you’re vested in then why care about the best plot. In YA it’s especially important that a character has an opportunity to grow and change, be challenged, face and overcome obstacles—this is twofold between external things happening to the character and internal things, personal struggles. LoS has a lot of different characters to follow, and everyone who has a POV is going to have a slightly different story arc, though there are times they converge. So, I’ll go through LoS using Julian as the example. Because Julian’s need to keep Emma and his family safe—the most important thing to his character, the story arc is going to reflect that.

These are my opinions of where things break down, and you can follow along with the chart:

Act 1: LoS begins by defining their routine—fighting demons at the pier. When they return Clary and Jace are there and we get the warning that things aren’t going to be staying the same. There’s no medicine for Arthur as the Centurions arrive to further upset the balance. Throughout all these external things happening, Julian still has internal struggles. He tries to juggle his frustrations with Arthur, the pressure of the Centurions bearing down, and most importantly his jealousy of Emma being with Mark.

Gwyn arrives to tell the Blackthorns of how Kieran is to be executed. It’s Mark’s ii (Inciting Incident) because he decides he can’t abandon Kieran and leaves for Faerie. Mark leaving for Faerie is Julian’s ii because he now has to leave the Institute and his family to the Centurions while he ventures to Faerie with Emma and Cristina to make sure his brother doesn’t end up getting killed. Kit’s ii is different since he has a different story arc. I think his is when Malcolm and his sea demons attack the Institute. Up till then he’s been full of disdain for Shadowhunters, but he discovers something about himself in the fighting, and then there is their escape to London after.

They leave for Faerie, and I like the Phouka as a literary device to remind us what is important for each character. For Julian, it is a solution to the parabatai bonds and this is essential to his character, because without breaking his bond, he can’t have Emma. He is told he will meet someone who will be able to break the bonds. When they get to Faerie, none of their weapons work. It’s Julian’s time to have second thoughts, yet they continue to the Climax of Act 1—the showdown with the Unseelie King and rescuing Kieran.

Act 2: There are more ups and downs (Ascending Action) for Julian. Rescued by the Seelie Court he now has to face the Seelie Queen all the while trying to hide his feelings for Emma. Meeting with the Queen he sees Malcolm is still alive, his uncle murdered, Annabel raised from the dead. More things going wrong with his life, even as the Queen tantalizes with the offer of the one thing he wants most in the world—a way to break the parabatai bonds, and the price. This temptation feeds into his ever increasing internal struggles. I think Annabel being raised from the dead would be considered a midpoint (big twist), because upon being reunited with his family at the London Institute he now needs to leave again to search for Annabel and the Black Volume. He doesn’t know what he wants to do with either of them yet, but he does know they need to be found. He leaves for Cornwall with Emma in search of Malcolm’s cottage. Being with Emma reinforces all of his internal struggles, raising the tension between the two of them as he can’t help but fantasize what a more ordinary life with her would be like.

Annabel finds him, and later they track her to the church where the Black Volume was used to raise her. There is a rip between dimensions, they fight off the blood demon Sabnok of Thule—they use a super rune to burn down a stone church (another obstacle). He’s angry Emma was put in danger, all his internal frustrations come to a boiling point and he and Emma fight in the cottage. She storms out only to meet up with the Riders. On the chart, I think the Riders would qualify as disaster, because it means the Unseelie King is using a group of super powerful near immortals to go after the entire Blackthorn family.

Once that fight is done, both Julian and Emma succumb to their mutual desire, a climax (fun pun) of their internal struggles to stay apart. Julian is flying high, he’s with Emma—but nope, because she confesses to him about the parabatai curse. (I know there are a lot of people in the fandom that don’t like Julian, but seriously can’t the guy get a break?)

Magnus brings them back to the London Institute where they try to piece all of these clues together. Then the Riders show up, a major fight ensues, an impossible battle against all odds, and everybody (convergence where everybody’s storylines match up in one place. Emma, Mark, Cristina, Kit—they are all there) is in danger of being slaughtered. But, Annabel comes and saves them. This is the Climax of Act 2. The Riders are gone and they finally have Annabel and the Black Volume.

Act 3: Falling/Descending Action. The function of falling action according to literarydevices.net: Audiences expect a low ebb after every great tide in order to give themselves a feeling of relief. This happens with falling action of the story or the play. In fact, it is the desire of the audiences to see the fruits of the labor of a hero or protagonist that satisfies them. If this does not happen, the audience stays unsatisfied, and the story seems incomplete. This, falling action serves as a rewarding element in a story or movie.

Julian makes a deal with Annabel to testify before the Clave. They have a plan. With Magnus’ help this is their chance to stop the Cohort, have Helen returned to the them. Emma doesn’t want to break all the parabatai bonds and Julian respects that, so they agree exile is their best option. The Blackthorns arrive in Idris to face the Clave. Robert agrees to the exile. But then Annabel is called to testify. Magnus is a no show. Questioning under the Mortal Sword breaks the last vestiges of Annabel’s fragile mind, and in the final pages a nightmare unfolds. The Final Outcome is the Resolution: Livvy is dead, Robert is dead, the Mortal Sword is shattered, the Clave is in chaos, and the Unseelie King has declared war and whisked Annabel and the Black Volume away.

I’m going to leave it up to the readers to say whether the resolution was satisfying. I will say this leads me into my next topic. LoS has its individual story arc, but it is also a part of The Dark Artifices overarching story arc. TDA overall could be superimposed on this same story structure with Livvy’s death being the midpoint (big twist).

The parabatai bonds, the Clave, Mark and Helen’s persecution, the Black Volume, the enemies of the Faerie Court, have all been a constant throughout LM and LoS: the rising/ascending action of the larger overall story.

What story structure teaches me about TSC as a whole…

The TSC series as a whole follows this pattern too…

I go chronologically in this example. TID set the introduction of the Shadowhunters in the Victorian Era. The first obstacle was Mortmain to be overcome. We move to TLH and we don’t know yet what ‘obstacle’ that series will overcome, but we do know that it is a vital puzzle piece to the overall TSC story arc. I have a theory thought that the climax of TLH will be the equivalent of Climax of Act 1. Moving into Act 2, TMI’s obstacle was overcoming Valentine and Sebastian and all the ups and downs in between. But the second Act is also about confrontation. And the Clave has its own confrontation with itself when it needs to decide whether to join Valentine. The Clave has always been in the background up till now, but it’s almost as if the Clave has become its own character with its own internal struggles and story arc in the series.

TDA continues the Ascending Action of the series as Emma and the Blackthorns work through their obstacle of Annabel and the Black Volume, the Unseelie King, the Clave, etc. This series again forces to the Clave to confront itself—who will Shadowhunters be? If this holds true I expect QoAD to have one hell of a midpoint plot twist.

TEC is another missing puzzle piece and I think (not sure because there isn’t a lot of info on it yet) the time frame will overlap with TMI and maybe TDA. Will it go so far as to help fill in the missing years between TDA and TWP? We know Magnus and Alec will have an obstacle to overcome.

And Cassie has said that TWP is the finale of the TSC series. That means that not only will TWP have its own climax, but it will doubly serve as the climax of the entire series. All of the series will somehow converge at this moment where there will be a seemingly insurmountable obstacle that Kit, Ty and Dru as protagonists will have to defeat.

It is very rare that an author has interconnecting series within a larger worldbuilding framework. And I think she might be a genius to have so many interconnecting parts follow this same overall story pattern.

#Lord of Shadows #The Dark Artifices #Story Arc #Julian Blackthorn #Cassandra Clare #LoS #TDA #TSC

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